MEXICO VOWS HIGH-TECH WAR VS. DRUGS

MEXICO CITY (AP) Pledging a "total war" to catch drug traffickers, Mexican
officials rolled out a $500 million plan Thursday to buy everything from
airborne radar to mobile X-ray units.

The plan which would cost $160 million this year and a total of $400 to $500
million through 2001 seeks to combine early detection of drug flights and
sea shipments with rapid response by ground forces. It also includes a
stepped up role for the Mexican army in anti-narcotics efforts.

The announcement comes nearly a month before a U.S. decision on whether to
certify Mexico's anti-drug efforts.

"The government is firmly committed ... to use all the power of its
institutions in a fight without quarter against this serious threat to the
nation," said Interior Secretary Francisco Labastida Ochoa, who oversees
domestic security.

"This is total war against drug trafficking," he told a news conference at
which photos of some of the new air, land and sea equipment were displayed.

A $2.5 million mobile X-ray unit mounted on a 10-ton truck was rolled out
for reporters and used in a demonstration to scan a small bus for hidden
drugs. Fixed X-ray units will be placed at two or three points on the U.S.-
Mexico border.

Fighting corruption a problem that has plagued Mexico's anti-drug efforts
was only indirectly mentioned in the new plan. Surveillance information in
drug busts would be taped on "unerasable tapes," Labastida said, so the acts
of individual agents could be recorded and judged.

Federal investigative police would receive new uniforms with microchips
embedded in the cloth, to "personalize" the uniforms and make them harder to
falsify. The uniforms would have new designs to distinguish them from other
police agencies.

That move was a recognition of the fact that drug traffickers have on
occasion masqueraded as policemen, hired police as bodyguards or clothed
their henchmen in police uniforms.

The centerpiece of the new plan is a central command center, which will
apparently be jointly staffed by the army and civilian police.

The army and navy will get the biggest share of the new technology spending,
which was announced ahead of a March 15 deadline for the United States to
issue a decision on Mexico's anti-drug certification.

The new equipment for the armed forces includes three Antonov An-32B radar
planes, helicopter-carried all-terrain vehicles, 144 light boats, eight
gunboats, cars, hydrojet patrol boats, and two frigates.

Civilian anti-drug police will get 24 new helicopters, bringing their total
fleet to 64.

Mexico would face some diplomatic sanctions if decertified, a step most
analysts view as highly unlikely.